The Bonny Environmental Consultants Committee (BECC) has called on government at all levels to act fast on the findings so far gotten on the issue of dead croaker fish around the shores and waterways of Rivers State.

Chairman of BECC, Professor Sodienye Abere, who made this call at the weekend in Port Harcourt, stated that it was important that measures were taken to sensitize the populace as to the danger of consuming the croaker fish which were dying under mysterious circumstances and to also take steps to stop the sale of the fish across the state.

The Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Ecotourism at the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt also called on the Bonny Indigenous Fishermen Union, in conjunction with other relevant stakeholders, to mobilize its members to go and mop up the entire coastline and in-land waterways in a bid to ensure that these fish are no longer available for harvesting by others, urging that the quantities so collected should be destroyed publicly.

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Prof Abere, who is also a Fellow of the African Scientific Institute (FASI), appealed to the State Commissioners of Environment, Agriculture and Health to assist with the necessary authorization and logistics support, maintaining that the union has the capability to check the indiscriminate harvesting of this fish type.

There have been incidences of dead croaker fish, popularly called ‘broke marriage’ on the shores and waterways around the Atlantic coastline and concerned stakeholders have been calling on the government to act to unravel the mystery behind the debacle.

According to a report by a group of Bonny indigenes namely Godswill Jumbo, Humphrey Buowari, Kelly Brown, and Kindness Brown, who conducted a preliminary investigation into the issue, indicated that only the Croaker, popularly known as ‘Broke Marriage’ was affected by the incident. It was yet to be ascertained if any other fish or living organism in the marine ecosystem was affected.

They also discovered that the areas impacted by the incident were mainly coastal communities along the Atlantic shoreline from Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States in Nigeria, while in Bonny Local Government Area fishing settlements in Finima Community including Amariari, Lighthouse, River 7, Agaja, Uku-Mbi, Mbisu 1, Mbisu 2, and Ifoko, and Oyorokoto and others in Andoni LGA were also impacted.

Prof Abere, a Fellow of the Institute of Strategic Management of Nigeria (ISM), who is also the 2nd National Vice President of the Waste Management Society of Nigeria (WAMASON), urged the State Government not to rest on its oars but expedite action on the matter by engaging relevant stakeholders on the issue to find a sustainable solution to it, pointing that the issue was a public health issue that needs to be addressed with the urgency that it deserves.

Samples of the fish and other marine elements have been taken to various laboratories in the state capital, Port Harcourt for forensic analysis to ascertain the cause of the massive death of the fish estimated at about five million already dead and littering the shorelines and waterways in the state.

The BECC Chairman appealed to members of the public to be wary of the croaker fish and avoid buying, selling or eating it during this period until the test results are out and the real cause of death of the fish known, maintaining that each individual should take responsibility for their health and also those of their loved ones around them.